State braces for federal shutdown

Published 6:36 pm, Friday, April 8, 2011

HARTFORD -- Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Friday said the state has enough money to cover federally supported social service programs, hospitals and nursing homes for about three weeks if the federal government were to shut down.

"After that we would have to look at alternative-finance vehicles to raise cash necessary to meet the federal obligations that would not be paid for and that would be too troublesome and too burdensome to the citizens and institutions of this state if we were not to pay those bills in a timely fashion," Malloy said in the Capitol.

If the political stalemate over funding for Planned Parenthood and other social spending extends beyond three weeks, the state will seek short-term borrowing, he said.

"The alternative is potentially to have hospitals close down, or services not provided and we certainly cannot afford that to happen. Nursing homes as well," he said, adding that he is also worried about federal money stopping for active rail-improvement projects.

The federal government lurched toward a shutdown for the first time in 15 years on Friday as Republicans and Democrats in Congress struggled for a way out and swapped increasingly incendiary charges over which side was to blame.

The Obama administration readied hundreds of thousands of furlough notices for federal workers, to be released any time after the midnight deadline for a deal to keep operations running.

"We know the whole world is watching us today," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

He, President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner all agreed a shutdown posed risks to an economy still recovering from the worst recession in decades. But there were disagreements aplenty among the principal players in an early test of divided government -- Obama in the White House, fellow Democrats in control in the Senate and a new, tea party-flavored Republican majority in the House.

By midday Friday, 12 hours before the funding would run out, most federal employees had been told whether they had been deemed essential or would be temporarily laid off in the event of a shutdown.

The military, mail carriers, air traffic controllers and border security guards would still be expected at work, although paychecks could be delayed.

National parks and forests would close, and taxpayers filing paper returns would not receive refunds during a shutdown.

Passports would be available in cases of emergencies only.

Malloy called the imminent shutdown of the federal government "an embarrassment" caused by socially conservative ideologues in the Republican majority of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"I've decided to treat this as any other crisis or potential crisis that might face the people of Connecticut and that is to make sure our state government is available to the citizens of the state of Connecticut," Malloy said. "We are preparing for this storm just like we would prepare for any other rain event or snow event."

"I am deeply disappointed by this shutdown," he said. "It is absolutely needless and the wrong thing to do. I want to say quite clearly I do not believe this to be about money, but ideology. The idea that a federal government would shut down in order to remove funds from an agency that prevents more abortions in this country than any other single agency in the United States is quite an embarrassment to me as a governor of a state that looks to the federal government as a partner."